The Prince of Corona
by countrypanther14
Summary: Being taken out of the prison after almost being wrongfully executed, Varian is forced to work out the rest of his sentence in the castle. Only to have to pretend to be the prince thanks to Rapunzel's great-grandmother making a surprise visit.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, just to counteract the sadness that is "A Lantern for the Alchemist". Here's an alternate ending where Varian lives.**

* * *

"Varian!" the Captain yelled, mainly in horror as he watched the young alchemist almost get executed in front of dozens of people. But the executioner instead took the noose off of the boy's neck, and set him free. The two guards that had put him up there laughing their asses off at Varian's distress because their "joke" was successful, while everyone who came to watch the boy get killed yelled in dismay because they wanted him dead. But Varian took this opportunity to run down from the platform and run straight to him because people started throwing things at him.

"Captain, what happened?" Fredric asked, having seen the crowd and heard the commotion all the way from the castle.

"Roderic and Cameron nearly executed Varian as joke," he said as he shoved Varian behind him to shield him from a brick someone had thrown. Taking the brick to his chest, and stumbling backwards from the blow.

"Some joke," Arianna muttered, trying to get Varian to come to her. "Come on, sweetie. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Arianna," Fredric said, putting on a warning tone with his wife.

"Do not use that tone with me, Fredric. You have more pressing issues to attend to," she said, nodding to Roderic and Cameron as they backed away slowly. Varian running right to her, and practically squeezing her to death in a hug because he was so scared. "Varian, sweetheart. I can't breathe."

"Put him back in the prison!" someone shouted as another person from the crowd pulled Varian off of Arianna and hit him over the head with the brick that had been used to strike Captain in the chest, and a whole other group rushed to beat the crap out of the boy. Causing Captain, Stan, and Pete to arrest all of them as Arianna quickly got Varian out of there and took him back to the castle to get him away from everyone. Sitting in the guest quarters with his head on her lap while they waited for the doctor, trying to comfort him as she ran her fingers through his hair, being careful with the growing bump from getting hit with the brick.

"Varian, it's okay," she soothed, taking her hand out of his hair to wipe his tears away with the back of her hand. "You're safe now."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm really, really sorry. Your majesty."

"Varian, we've been over this," she said, thinking he was talking about what he had done to get himself put into the prison in the first place. "You know I already forgave you for what you did."

"No, it's not that," he said, sitting up and letting out a huge sniffle as she grabbed a tissue from the box beside her. "I-I had a makeshift alchemy set in my cell. To keep me busy while I was in there. I-It wasn't anything that would help me escape, but-"

"Varian," she said, taking on a tone of disappointment as she wiped his nose and dried his tears; putting her free hand on his shoulder to get him to look at her. "You know you aren't supposed to have that stuff on you. Not only could you have potentially found a means of escaping the prison, but you could have really hurt yourself if any of the stuff you made exploded."

"I'm really sorry," he apologized again, putting on the puppy eyes as Arianna pushed his hair aside to look at the bump on his head. "I won't do it again, I swear."

"I know," she said, kissing the top of his head, and giving him another hug.

* * *

 **R &R.**

 **Edit: If you haven't read "A Lantern for the Alchemist", I suggest you read the first chapter at least so you have more context as to why Varian was nearly executed here.**


	2. Chapter 2

**R &R.**

* * *

"Your majesty, it appears Varian has escaped his room," Pete said.

"What?" Arianna asked, looking over at the guard with an confused brow. Because last time she had checked, Varian was had fallen asleep in the guest quarters after the doctor gave him the all clear as far as he bump on his head went; telling her to wake him up every so often to make sure he was still alert and responsive. So he should have still been in the room. "Did you check to see if he was anywhere else?"

"Probably outside by the tree," one of the servants said, looking out the window to point at Varian, who had opted to sneak out of his room to fall asleep under a shady tree while the sun was still out.

"Go get him before Fredric sees him," Arianna ordered. Because as much as she found this sight cute, she did not want Varian walking around unsupervised. Who knows what other tactics Nigel would use to put him back into the prison? Speaking of which.

Going into the throne room to speak with Fredric, Arianna heard a soft trickling sound and turned her head to see that Rudiger had somehow managed to climb up one of the tapestries that was in the room, and was clinging to the rod that held it up with his front paws, taking a nice, long pee break. And he must have been holding it in for a while, because it was a pretty decently sized puddle for such a small raccoon.

"Rudiger," she scolded as one of the servants climbed up on the ladder to go get him. "Bad boy."

"Where do I put him?" the servant asked, holding Rudiger away from her in case he still needed to go.

"Take him outside in case he still needs to go," Fredric ordered before he turned back to his wife. "And whatever you're going to ask me in regards to Varian. The answer is 'no'."

"Fredric, the boy nearly got killed earlier this morning," she said. "We can't put him back in the prison."

"He's a criminal, Arianna. He committed treason, and on top of that he kidnapped you, tried to kill you, and nearly destroyed the kingdom."

"You also promised Rapunzel you'd help him," she said. "How exactly can you do that when there's a good chance Roderic and Cameron are going to try and kill him again?"

"They will not. I took care of it," Fredric assured her.

"Fredric, honey. Demoting them to cleaning out the horse stalls for a month is not punishment. They were scheduled to do that," Arianna said. "He's working out the rest of his sentence here in the castle."

"No, he is not. He's a dangerous criminal."

"Again, you promised Rapunzel you'd help him," Arianna argued. "And besides, the doctor said to keep a close eye on him until his head heals up. We can't exactly do that when he's locked away in some prison cell waiting to die again."

"He is not staying here," Fredric said.

"Yes, he is," she said.

"No, he's not."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Um, your majesties," Pete said, entering the throne room.

"What!?" they both yelled, turning to face the guard.

"I don't want to alarm you guys, but Varian just threw up."

"Thank you, Pete. I'll be right out," Arianna said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Waiting until Pete was gone before turning back to her husband. "It appears the court has spoken. Wouldn't you say?"

"He is not staying here," Fredric said.

"Well he's certainly not going back to the prison," she said. "Now if you excuse, I have to go tend to him."

Walking out of the throne room before Fredric could continue to argue with her, Arianna saw one of the servants, Vienna, cleaning up Varian's vomit while Stan tried to get Varian back on his feet. But considering two of the guards almost killed him earlier that morning, Varian was not really willing to go anywhere with Stan or Pete. And Nigel was not helping matters any by telling them to put him back in the prison.

"Varian," she called out, getting Varian to look over at her, and immediately jump to his feet to run to her side. Taking him back to the guest quarters, and tucking him back into bed to he could go back to sleep. Keeping a very close eye on him, and keeping a bucket nearby in case he got sick again. But not even an hour after Varian fell asleep, he woke up because his head was hurting him, and he wanted some cuddles.

"Your majesty," he said, laying there beside her with his head on her shoulder, feeling her fingers gently comb through his hair, being careful of the swollen lump on his head that was causing him pain. "You're not going to let them take me back to the prison again. Are you?"

"Of course not," she said. "What happened this morning was too close of a call to be keeping you in there. I'll talk to Fredric about it later, and see if I can get him to let you work out the rest of your sentence here in the castle. But for now, you need to get some more rest so your head can heal up."

"Okay," he said, closing his eyes to go back to sleep. "Your majesty..."

"Yes Varian?"

"Thank you for still believing in me," he mumbled before falling back to sleep. Snoring softly against her shoulder as she kissed the top of his head.

"It's no problem," she said softly, letting him sleep there.

* * *

 **R &R.**


	3. Chapter 3

**R &R. And just to answer the question. Yes, I am bringing Quirin back for this story as well, but like the last one, he's not appearing until later on in the story. **

* * *

"Um...Varian, are you sure you got that?" one of the servants asked as she watched Varian follow along behind her carrying a huge ball of clothes that pretty much blocked his face and his line of sight. Because the queen had ordered him to help her with her chores to give him something to do so he wouldn't get his hands on an alchemy set. And so far, it was actually quite easy to work with him. Because he knew he had to do something to redeem himself, and it was actually nice having someone his own age to vent to.

"I got it, Vienna," he said, trying to peek around the ball of clothes before Vienna took them from him and put them on the cart beside them. Only for Rudiger to poke his head out of the pile of clothes. "Rudiger."

"How did you even get in there?" Vienna asked as Varian lifted the raccoon out of the cart and put him on his shoulders.

"You might want to have Moira wash the clothes really good. I'm pretty sure Rudiger may have had a toilet accident in there," he said, hearing Rudiger let out an embarrassed chittering noise as he scratched the raccoon behind his ears.

"Does he always have toilet accidents?"

"Not normally, but he can't exactly go outside without Nigel trying to put him in a trap," he said as she went to make the king and queen's bed. "I tried litter training him back home. But my dad didn't really approve of that."

"Why? Did he know that you wouldn't clean it?"

"No, because he kept saying Rudiger's a wild animal and not a pet. Despite the fact I've raised him since he was a little baby."

"Well could you try to litter train him please," Vienna said as she chucked a pillow case into the cart. "We can't keep cleaning up after him every time he has an accident."

"Only if you're willing to try and talk his majesty into giving me one. I can't ask him for anything without him brushing me off," he said as they went to change the bedding in his room. "And I remember him telling Rapunzel he'd get me help."

"That's probably because he gets all his 'kingly advice' from Nigel," she said as she opened the door, and saw an alchemy set sitting by the window. "Okay, are you serious here? The whole reason the queen put you with me was so you wouldn't get your hands on an alchemy set."

"I didn't request that," he said, holding his hands up. "I was with you all morning."

"Well alchemy sets don't just appear out of thin air, genius," she said as he walked over to the alchemy set, and reached his hand out to touch it. "Varian!"

"What? One of the burners was left on," he said, going to turn off the burner on the table to it wouldn't set anything on fire, and being blown backwards when the alchemy set exploded in a cloud of smoke.

"Damn it, Varian," Vienna said between coughs as the smoke dissipated. "Don't you have any common sense not to touch any evidence that can be used against you?"

"Apparently not," he coughed, opening the window and fanning out the smoke just as Arianna and Fredric ran over because they heard the explosion.

"What happened?" Fredric demanded.

"Nigel tried to frame Varian by putting an alchemy set in the room, and he went and touched it," Vienna said as the smoke cleared.

"They left one of the burners on. What was I supposed to do? Have it set the room on fire while I went to get the king and queen?" he asked as he brushed the soot from his shoulders and saw he had a piece of glass stuck in the back of his hand.

"Are you two okay?" Arianna asked.

"Yeah, we're totally fine," Vienna said sarcastically as Varian plucked the glass shard from his hand and just tossed it onto the floor with the rest of the broken beakers and flasks. And they were lucky to have not gotten anymore scratches on them from the chemicals and glass shards. "It's not like Varian nearly killed us all or anything."

"I told you we shouldn't let him stay here," Fredric said.

"It was an accident," Varian said. "I wasn't even the one who requested the alchemy set to be put in here."

"Fredric, we talked about this," Arianna said, going over to Varian and wrapping her arms around his thin frame in a protective hug. "You can't keep jumping to conclusions. We already saw how that went before we got Rapunzel back."

"The boy nearly blew up the castle."

"Pardon me, your majesties."

"What?!" they both yelled, looking over at Stan who jumped in surprise and took a step back.

"Arianna, your grandmother's here," he said, making Arianna groan because she hated it when her grandmother came to visit. She loved the woman to death, don't get her wrong. But every time her grandmother Winnie came to visit her, she and Fredric were always worried she would die in her sleep at some point in her visit, or she would be convinced that Rapunzel wasn't missing during the time that she was. Or in some cases, she would be convinced the Rapunzel was a boy. Because shortly before Rapunzel was even born, Winnie's memory started to go, and she was having hard times remembering conversations she had with other people.

"Thank you, Stan. We'll be right down," she said, shooing the guard away before she cast a look at her husband and dragged Varian out of the room. And the entire time, Varian was nervous she would be angry at him for having the alchemy set in the room when he didn't even request it. But before he could go into a whole "I'm sorry" spiel, he was being hugged by a frail old woman who was probably pushing a hundred that he had never met before and called him her 'great grandson'. And before he could try and correct her, Arianna held up her hand and shook her head; telling him not to bother.

"It's uh...good to see you again?" he asked, completely confused as to why this woman was hugging him as she pulled herself away to look at him, and pinched his cheeks. Going on and on about how he was 'so adorable' before Fredric came over and took her away to her room. "Who was that?"

"My grandmother," Arianna said as Varian rubbed his cheeks where Winnie had pinched them. "And this isn't really the first time she's forgotten that Rapunzel's not here. So I think it's best you ride this out until she leaves."

"Are you sure your husband would approve?" he asked.

"He's going to have to," she said.

* * *

 **R &R.**


End file.
